Another Ad Flop for Apple

Over the past couple of years, Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) had something of a dry spell when it comes to its marketing campaigns. That's notable because the company is known for memorable and successful ads. There have been some reports that suggest marketing chief Phil Schiller may be to blame, since he took over Apple's advertising strategy after Steve Jobs died.

The Mac maker unveiled a new campaign earlier this month at WWDC, focusing heavily on Apple's corporate principles of designing products that affect people's lives. As part of this push, Apple subsequently released a lengthy 10-minute video showing how it can make a difference one app at a time.

Sadly, the spot that's been airing recently showing people using devices has not been resonating with consumers, according to Bloomberg. Ad analytics specialist Ace Metrix says that the newest ad scores the lowest of any Apple ad in the past year, based on surveys of over 500 viewers. That's pretty bad considering the "Genius" ads that Apple released last summer, which may be included in the comparison. Ace Metrix had said those ads also performed poorly compared to Google's "Camping" spot that ran around the same time.

The recent ads focusing on the iPhone as a camera and music player fared better in general, scoring near the industry average, but below the scores that Apple has historically been able to hit.

Ace Metrix has also praised Samsung's campaigns lately, saying the South Korean conglomerate's ads have earned high marks over the past couple of months by showcasing product features. Last year, the researcher also called Microsoft's Surface dancing ads the "most effective" tablet ad of 2012.

In other words, according to Ace Metrix's methodology, Samsung, Microsoft, and Google are all beating Apple in advertising. Can Apple ever regain it's marketing mojo?

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